By Rugged Ways
By rugged ways and thro' the nightWe struggle blindly toward the light;And groping, stumbling, ever prayFor sight of long delaying day.The cruel thorns beside the roadStretch eager points our steps to goad,And from the thickets all aboutDetaining hands reach threatening out.
"Deliver us, oh, Lord," we cry,Our hands uplifted to the sky.No answer save the thunder's peal,And onward, onward, still we reel."Oh, give us now thy guiding light;"Our sole reply, the lightning's blight."Vain, vain," cries one, "in vain we call;"But faith serene is over all.
Beside our way the streams are dried,And famine mates us side by side.Discouraged and reproachful eyesSeek once again the frowning skies.Yet shall there come, spite storm and shock,A Moses who shall smite the rock,Call manna from the Giver's hand,And lead us to the promised land!
The way is dark and cold and steep,And shapes of horror murder sleep,And hard the unrelenting years;But 'twixt our sighs and moans and tears,We still can smile, we still can sing,Despite the arduous journeying.For faith and hope their courage lend,And rest and light are at the end.
Words in this poem
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- peal v. i.
- To appeal. Spencer.
- famine n.
- General scarcity of food; dearth; a want of provisions; destitution. [F. famine, fr. L. fames hunger; cf. Gr. hani loss, lack, ha to leave.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
- arduous a.
- Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb. [L. arduus steep, high; akin to Ir. ard high, height.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By Rugged Ways is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, By Rugged Ways, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/by-rugged-ways.html, id L26138.
Form and metre
By Rugged Ways is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDD nightA · lightA · prayB · dayB · roadC · goadC · aboutD · outD
- 2 AABBCCDD cryA · skyA · pealB · reelB · lightC · blightC · callD · allD
- 3 AABBCCDD driedA · sideA · eyesB · skiesB · shockC · rockC · handD · landD
- 4 AABBCCDD steepA · sleepA · yearsB · tearsB · singC · journeyingC · lendD · endD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| By rugged ways and thro' the night | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We struggle blindly toward the light; | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| And groping, stumbling, ever pray | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/· |
| For sight of long delaying day. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The cruel thorns beside the road | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Stretch eager points our steps to goad, | 8 | ·/˘·/··· |
| And from the thickets all about | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Detaining hands reach threatening out. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| "Deliver us, oh, Lord," we cry, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Our hands uplifted to the sky. | 8 | /·/˘˘··· |
| No answer save the thunder's peal, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And onward, onward, still we reel. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| "Oh, give us now thy guiding light;" | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Our sole reply, the lightning's blight. | 8 | /·˘/·/˘· |
| "Vain, vain," cries one, "in vain we call;" | 8 | ········ |
| But faith serene is over all. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Beside our way the streams are dried, | 8 | ˘//····· |
| And famine mates us side by side. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Discouraged and reproachful eyes | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Seek once again the frowning skies. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Yet shall there come, spite storm and shock, | 8 | ········ |
| A Moses who shall smite the rock, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Call manna from the Giver's hand, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And lead us to the promised land! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The way is dark and cold and steep, | 8 | ········ |
| And shapes of horror murder sleep, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And hard the unrelenting years; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But 'twixt our sighs and moans and tears, | 8 | ··/····· |
| We still can smile, we still can sing, | 8 | ········ |
| Despite the arduous journeying. | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| For faith and hope their courage lend, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And rest and light are at the end. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.